Rivers And The Ravaging Flood

Everywhere one goes, the story is the same. It appears  no state
is spared. From Lokoja in Kogi State in the Northern part of the country
to Bayelsa and Rivers States in the South South and down to Lagos and Oyo
States in the South West, the flood leaves tales of woes.

The first whistle
of this awesome flood was heared in far away Lokoja, Kogi State in the northern
part of Nigeria, owing largely to the overflow of Kainji and Shiroro dams.

Within few days, the disaster spread. Virtually all the
States now have a taste of the ravaging flood. It is as if the days of Noah are
here.

Rivers State had its own sad tale to tell last week, as  no fewer than 18 communites in Eugeni, Ahoada
West Local Government Area of the State were submerged in a devastating flood
that rendered thousands of people homeless and properties and farmlands worth
millions of naira destroyed. The entire Ahoada Local Government Area is now cut
off from the rest of the State. In fact, all the communities which fall under the
Orashi region were badly affected.The story is worse in Egboama which comprises
Kal and Opu-Ogbogolo, as well as in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area.

The people in the affected areas now live in makeshift
without food. Even the makeshift that served as temporary abode, according to
the paramount ruler of the community, Chief Geoffrey Ikogha, has been
submerged.

As a result, many of the victims have moved to Ahoada while
some others are now refugees in neighbouring Emesu in Emughan axis of Abua.

The Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi has
visited some of the flood ravaged communities of Ahoada West and Onne Local
Government Area (ONELGA). He specifically visited Okwuzi, Obrikom, and Egbema
Ebocha in ONELGA and Kala and Opu Ogbogolo in Ahoada West.

While speaking against the backdrop of the rampaging floods
in the region, Amaechi called on the Federal Government to put in place
“workable measures that would address the problems of environmental degradation
and flooding in the Niger Delta and country as a whole.”

The governor who was speaking when members of the Senate
Committee on Environment and Ecology led by its Chairman, Senator Bukola Saraki
paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Port Harcourt, said if
adequate measures were not put in place to address the problems suffered by oil
producing communities in the region, “States resources will not be enough to
contain the humanitarian crises that will arise.”

He added that the issue of flooding has become worrisome in
the oil and gas region and called on the Federal Government to desilt the River
Niger in a bid to address the issue of flooding.

Reports have it that the Nigerian Meteorological Agency
(NMA) and National Emegency Management Agency (NEMA) had issued early warnings that
due to climate change, the country would experience much rain between August
and September, but only few people took the organisations serious.

Recent statistics by the African Centre for Meterorological
Application for Development (ACMAD) revealed that West Africa as a whole has
witnessed an increased flooding in recent years due mainly to climate change
with 22 million people affected in 2010 with more than 500 recorded deaths.

According to ACMAD, Nigeria with 118 deaths in 2010 was the
highest, followed by Ghana, 52 and Republic of Benin, 43.

In 2011, flood occasioned by heavy downpour devastated
Nigeria’s commercial centre, Lagos. The flood reportedly killed 102 people,
while several bridges, houses, and roads were completely washed away.

Though a natural disaster, many people blame this year’s
flood on the negligence of the concerned authorities.

According to a lecturer at the Department of Sociology,
University of Port Harcourt, Dr. Steve Wordu, in as much as flooding is a
natural phenomenon, this year’s flooding was compounded by man made control of
water.

He said the water from the dams particularly Shiroro Dam and
the release of water from Lagdo Dam in Cameroon were not natural.

“The phenomenon could be compounded by nature but the
actions to prevent it, the technology to prevent it, the social organisation to
prevent and manage it is purely human”, he said.

He wondered if the National Emergency Management Agency was
actually prepared to respond to this situation, explaining that in disaster
management, pre and post actions should be taken into consideration.

Dr. Wordu explained that in today’s management of
emergencies, there would have been early warning signals to  prepare the agencies, the political
authority, and the communities well ahead of time to  take pre cautionary measures to evacuate to
places or to put in place quick response action.

“I don’t think and I can say it categorically, the NEMA did
not do well in this case. If it is perennial, let us say it was, we would have
known historically that this thing would happen this year and for that the
meteorological agency, NEMA, federal and states ministries of environment,
would have done something to prevent it,” he said.

Dr Wordu could not understand why people using the East West
road and those living along the banks of the Orashi river were not evacuated
even as the rising waters from the river was threatening.

“But we all kept quite, people were quite until disaster
came and everybody is running helter skelter. “This is when politicians are
visiting their communities because they will handle the contract to provide
relief materials. This is not the proper way of handling disaster”, he said.

On his part, the National President of the Nigerian
Environmental Society (NES), Dr. Olu Andah Wai-Ogosu, says the question of how
to manage the attendant consequences of the flood should be everybody’s
concern.

While speaking to our correspondent in an exclusive
interview in his office in Port Harcourt, the NES boss said, the need for
protecting the environment from policy development to policy implementation has
been down played in the developmental strategy of this country and called for
measures to reverse the trend.

He said the main challenge was how to address the
consequences of the flood and educate the citizenry both in the public and
private sector.

While condemning what he called the fire brigade approach of
government in handling what was waiting to happen, he equally frowned at the
practice of resettling people improperly.

“Those places we visited lack basic sanitary requirements
for healthy living, no conveniences, no water. If you go to Ndoni, Akinima,
Joinkrama and nearby Bayelsa, schools have been closed and are now being used
as resettlement centres. What I am trying to say is that the aftermath of the
flood is that there is going to be epidemic of all sorts of deceases”, he said.

Dr. Wai-Ogosu said as professionals, environmentalists had
no option than to continuously educate the rural people on how to properly
react to disasters, as man and such occurrences could not be separated.

“The environmentalist has the challenge to go down to the
grassroots, they have to develop a continuous education awareness programmes
for the rural community to react to natural disaster because they come with a
lot of environmental hazards”, he said.

The flood which was said to have been heightened by the
release of water from Lagdo Dam in Cameroon, Kaiji Dam and Shiroro Dam both in
Niger State as well as Jebba Dam in Kwara has caused unquatifiable damage to
both human and aquatic life, apart from the loss of farmlands which have been
submerged and wasted.

Some of the States that flood has ravaged in recent time
include Kogi, Niger, Benue, Katsina, Cross Rivers , Imo, Abia, Lagos, Akwa
Ibom, Delta, Ondo and Rivers States among others.

Given the magnitude of the disaster caused by flood this
year, the Federal Government has approved the sum of N17.6 billion for flood
victims across the country, even as the President Goodluck Jonathan has
constituted a 34-man National Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation.

The committee saddled with the responsibility of raising
funds to support  government’s efforts in
providing urgent relief for flood victims in the country includes members of
the international agencies, religious organisations, ministries, departments
and agencies (MDAs).

The committee which is to be co-chaired by Mr. Olisa
Agbakoba (SAN) and Alhaji Aliko Dangote also has the mandate of raising funds
to complement government’s efforts. It has 12-months time frame to complete its
duties and report back to the  President.

In Rivers State, Governor Amaechi has also constituted a
12-man committee headed by the Deputy Governor, Engr. Tele Ikuru to put in
place measures that will guarantee the safety of those affected by the flood in
over 10 communities of Ahoada West, Ahoada East and Ogba Egbema/Ndoni LGAs of
the State.